Durham Born Exhibit Interactive

Stage

Prototyping

README

The Museum of Durham History is installing an exhibit on Durham’s historic hospitals (Watts, Lincoln, and Duke) in the Health and Human Services building (414 E Main). The exhibit contains text and images, and the MoDH is interested in prototyping an interactive element that will allow people who were born in these hospitals to show their Durham pride.

The exhibit started out at the History Hub, where staff and volunteers noticed that a lot of visitors proudly declared that they were born in these hospitals. As it makes its way into the community, the MoDH wants to nurture that pride as a way to honor native Durhamites and a way to spark interest in the history of these hospitals.

The idea is to have a digital slideshow in the exhibit featuring photos of people who were born at Lincoln, Watts, County General, Durham Regional, and Duke hospitals. People could tweet a selfie of themselves in front of the exhibit (OR better yet, a baby photo!) and proudly declare that they are #DurhamBorn. The photo will then appear in a slide show on a tablet mounted to the wall in the exhibit. There will be some accompanying text to explain the project and encourage participation.

Project Activity

The team took a field trip to Duke Regional to see one of the exhibit locations. The museum identified an iPad that can be used to test different versions of the slideshow and eventually be placed in the exhibit at the Public Health Department. Next steps are firming up a style guide for the slideshow, moving it over so it is hosted by the museum, finding hardware to mount it to the wall.